The al Houthi movement seized a Saudi naval vessel and two South Korean vessels three miles from Uqban Island off Yemen’s southwestern coast on November 17. The Saudi vessel was towing a South Korean drilling rig when al Houthi militants hijacked it, according to Saudi officials.[1]

UAE-backed al Hizam Security Forces thwarted an al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) attack in Mudia district in Abyan governorate in southern Yemen on November 19. AQAP last attacked al Hizam forces in Mudia in late August.[2]

Horn of Africa Security Brief

Al Shabaab assassinated a senior Puntland State intelligence official near his residence in Galkayo town in north-central Somalia on November 18. Al Shabaab separately claimed to assassinate an elder in Kismayo port city in southern Somalia on November 18.[3]

Somali police and Somali National Army (SNA) forces exchanged fire in Heliwa district in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on November 18. The fighting broke out over a land dispute.[4]

The UN Security Council added ingredients used in home-made explosives to an arms embargo on Somalia on November 15. The decision comes after a UN Panel of Experts found definitive evidence that al Shabaab is manufacturing explosives.[5]

Security Council Committee pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia addressed to the President of the Security Council,” United Nations Security Council, November 1, 2019, https://undocs.org/S/2019/858.